Manic Monday

by Piper Rayne

  “Because Pete told them last Friday that we have an open relationship and pretty much eluded to the fact that we all sleep together.”

  “All?”

  “The three of us. You, me, and him.”

  “Pete’s totally not my type,” he jokes and I’m thankful he doesn’t take it seriously.

  “Mean Moms were being nosy, and he thought it was funny. But he would since he gets to go back to L.A. and we’ll be here.”

  He looks around. “I’m surprised people believe it. Then again, most people will believe anything.”

  We wait patiently while Darcie gives us the stink eye and a few moms look Reed and I up and down like we’re in the market to open our bedroom and taking resume’s.

  What feels like a lifetime later, the bell rings, the doors open, and Jade and Henry run out.

  Jade’s got a birthday crown on her head.

  “YAY!” She runs right into me and I pick her up. “Happy birthday!”

  I saw her this morning, made her pancakes with sprinkles, but now she really gets to celebrate.

  “Happy birthday, Jade.” Reed holds up his hand in a high five.

  “Thanks.”

  The four of us walk down the street and it strikes me how much we must resemble a family. One girl, one boy both of whom are fighting for dominance over which one gets to tell us about their day first, Reed and I sharing a look every so often.

  The warm sensation in my chest crystallizes to ice the moment I catch sight of the car outside my mom’s house—Pete’s sports car that he couldn’t bear to part with when we moved to L.A. He’s been storing it at his parent’s place since. It’s expensive and tends to stand out like a quarter in a sea of pennies in this neighborhood.

  “Look at that car!” Henry says and points to it.

  “That’s my dad’s car,” Jade says proudly.

  “Is that my birthday girl?” Pete stands from where he was sitting on my mom’s porch and holds out his arms.

  My sweet Jade abandons us and runs into Pete’s awaiting embrace.

  Henry follows, and I initiate the hand hold with Reed, needing the support.

  Pete spins her around in a circle and she squeals. Same old, same old.

  “Hey, Henry,” he says in a louder than normal voice. “You enjoying that sand?”

  “I showed my grandpa.”

  “I bet he thought it was pretty cool,” Pete continues to gloat, glancing our way to see my hand in Reed’s.

  “He said it probably came from Lake Michigan.”

  I laugh because I envision Ned telling Henry it’s no different than the sand right down the street.

  “That’s pure California sand.” Pete looks to Jade whose head is already nodding in agreement.

  Henry looks to Reed and shrugs.

  The conversation stalls once Reed and Pete’s eyes meet.

  “Bug, go inside,” I say. “Chelsea and Hannah are in there and I think they have gifts.”

  She squeals and wiggles until Pete lets her down and then she grabs Henry’s hand, pulling him into the house.

  “Reed,” Pete puts his hand up in the air. “How the hell are you?”

  Reed’s hand stays firmly in mine as he reaches out and shakes Pete’s. “I’m great. You?”

  A huff leaks out of Pete, but no one acknowledges it. “I saw your performance in court the other day. Hell of a case.”

  “Thanks.” They drop hands and we stand. Reed and I a united front with Pete on the other side.

  “I was telling Vic, Chicago won’t be able to afford you.”

  Reed squeezes my hand. “So, I heard.”

  “Just want her to be prepared for when you leave.”

  Pete’s smile says he’s toeing the line and hoping Reed’s the first one to cross.

  “I’m not leaving.”

  “Okay, well, let’s go have pizza and cake,” I say, wanting out of this awkward encounter.

  “Sounds good. Remember eight years ago, when you were screaming like a hyena.” Pete chuckles and follows us into the house.

  “I was squeezing a walnut out of a pinhole,” I say between clenched teeth.

  I hadn’t thought about the fact that not everyone else knew Pete until we walked in and Chelsea and Hannah’s eyes zeroed in on him.

  “Oh, shit, he’s back,” my mom grumbles.

  “Jade,” I mouth, and she glances around.

  “Jade’s showing Henry her room. Would you like a drink, Reed?” she asks, purposely not asking Pete.

  “I’d love one, thanks, Ms. Clarke.” Reed follows my mom.

  “Please, call me Diane.”

  “Thank you, Diane.” Reed winks at me and then heads into the kitchen.

  “That woman might hire a hitman one day,” Pete says and then steps forward into the room, his arm extended. “I’m Pete Keebler.”

  Hannah shakes his hand. “Hannah Crowley.”

  “Crowley?”

  She smiles. “The one and only.”

  I’m surprised he doesn’t perch a seat right next to her. Everyone knows the Crowley name in the Chicago area, but Pete steps to the side to shake Chelsea’s hand.

  “The cookie elf?” She shakes his hand briefly and then wipes her hand on her slacks.

  “Funny,” Pete deadpans.

  “I’m glad to be done with those jokes.” I laugh, heading into the kitchen. “Do you want something to drink?”

  “Just a water,” Pete says, and I disappear to find Reed and my mom talking at the kitchen table.

  “So, you’re not coming back in?” I ask.

  He leans back, holding out his hand which I easily accept, and he pulls me to his side.

  “Your mom and I have declared this the Pete-free zone.”

  I shake my head. “You have to get along with him. He’s Jade’s father.”

  “I’ll always be cordial, but it doesn’t mean I have to be in the same room as him.” His hand grips my hip and he pulls me into his lap.

  We laugh, and my mom is staring over at us with happiness gleaming from her own eyes.

  “I’m not sure I’m cool with the PDA while Jade is in the next room,” Pete’s voice sounds from behind me.

  I stay planted on Reed’s lap and lock my arms around his neck, planting a kiss on his cheek.

  “Oh, yes, because you hiding in a hotel room with your mistress was great for your little girl. It destroyed her parents’ marriage.” My mom stands and leaves the room without another word.

  “You’d think I cheated on her.” Pete shakes his head, pointing to the fridge. “Water?”

  “Oh yeah, sorry, I got distracted.”

  I can’t deny it feels good to see Pete walk on eggshells around my house after I walked on them for years.

  “I see.” He heads to the fridge. “Your friend Chelsea should try stand-up.”

  Reed and I share a look to say she’s probably nailed him with a few zingers already. With Chelsea, it’s any ex, not necessarily her own. She hates them all.

  “She is funny,” I say.

  He grabs a water out of the fridge. “Cute cake. Remember when we baked the turtle one that year.”

  Reed’s muscles stiffen underneath me.

  I’m sure Pete’s remembering the lovemaking on the kitchen floor covered in flour, but I remember him not coming home until ten that night. Me yelling, him screaming and then fighting until we make out. Pete always forgets the bad.

  “The pizza should be here soon.” I stand up so when Jade comes out she won’t see me on Reed’s lap.

  Pete sits down across from Reed and there’s enough tension in the room you’d think they were mob leaders having a sit-down.

  “I gotta know, I mean I know you’re rich, but why choose the DA’s office? You could be a defense lawyer,” Pete asks. “Still trying to act like you’re holier-than-thou?”

  “I enjoy putting the bad people away.” Reed spins his own water bottle on the table.

  I busy myself getting the paper plates and napkin
s out. If they’re both going to be a part of our lives, then they have to get along.

  “Lucky you’re rich, because the job pays shit.”

  Reed stares blankly at him. “Money doesn’t buy everything.”

  Pete huffs and leans back in his chair. “It’s funny that you have the whole golden boy act down pat, but you think it’s okay to steal my wife and daughter.”

  My hand slaps the counter. “I’m not your wife.”

  “Fine, my ex-wife,” Pete counters, but he’s still posing the question to Reed.

  “I guess I’m not all that good then.”

  I smile at Reed for keeping his composure.

  “What if I was here to get her back?” Pete asks.

  I freeze and every muscle in my body tightens.

  Reed sits up straighter. “Are you?”

  “Maybe.” He shrugs.

  “Then I’d say you missed your chance. She’s with me now.”

  “Hello, the choice is mine.” They each turn their attention to me. “Pete, cut the shit. We’re over and if you’re jealous over Reed it’ll disappear as soon as you’re back in L.A. Reed, you know what we have.”

  He smiles.

  “Last warning.” I hate that I sound like a mother delivering an ultimatum, but it’s the only way to do this. “Get along because it’s Jade’s birthday and if either one of you ruin her day, you’ll be asked to leave.”

  They each glance at one another and then lean back in their chairs.

  How many hours before Pete’s on a plane back to L.A.?

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “You have got to be kidding me!” Darcie’s steps pound on the pavement, her bullhorn clutched tightly in her hands.

  The tow truck lowers the car in the roped off area while Reed’s positions the various sledgehammers, hammers, gloves, baseball bats and other tools we picked up to do some serious damage to this car.

  I might even have to buy a handful of tickets myself. Pete hops on a plane tomorrow and let’s just say my patience has worn thin. There’s a reason we’re divorced.

  “Oh, hey, Darcie. Georgia,” I say, acknowledging Mean Mom number one and her constant shadow.

  “This is your idea of fun?” Darcie asks in a screechy voice.

  “Yep.”

  “The kids can’t do it, they could get hurt. Do you want that on your conscious? Maybe your boyfriends can afford the lawsuits, but I know you can’t.”

  She thinks she’s going to bully me to breaking down. Not happening. I laugh a little that she still believes Pete, Reed, and I are in some kind of relationship. What an idiot.

  “It’s a parents-only event.”

  “You’ll get no one. I’ll make sure of it.” She stomps away, but she can’t do anything about it because Principal Weddle already okay’d it.

  Reed walks over to me. “How angry is she?” he asked with a chuckle.

  “Pretty pissed off.”

  “Good.”

  I step into him, wrapping my arms around his neck and lifting up on my tiptoes to kiss him. We have a little time before the carnival starts. Pete is bringing Jade after she slept over at his parents’ last night.

  “Let’s go grab some coffee?”

  He checks out his watch behind my back. “We have an hour.”

  “Perfect.”

  We choose to walk the two blocks to the nearest Starbucks since the weather is nice today. His hand swings in mine on the way back and I think of how I could really get used to this.

  “Since we have some time before everything starts, we need to discuss something. I was going to wait until tonight, but I can’t,” he says.

  The pit that’s been in my belly since the topic of him relocating elsewhere came up, morphs into a crevice.

  “You got an offer?” I ask, hoping I’m wrong. It’s not that I don’t want him to succeed in his career, but we need more time to see what this is before we make big decisions about our future together.

  He nods toward the park a block away from the school and leads me over to a bench where we sit.

  “Tell me, Reed.”

  He sets our coffees down behind him on the bench, both of his hands taking mine in his. “I got an offer.”

  My eyes burn, and my nose crinkles and that crevice turns into a gorge. “Of course you did.”

  “It’s in New York,” he says.

  “City?” I clarify although I already know. Of course, he could be the DA in New York City. How could I ever compete with that?

  “Take it,” I tell him. I have to force the words out of my mouth. I know what it’s like to put your dreams on hold for a relationship and I can’t ask him to do that for me.

  “Will you come?” he asks, with hope in his eyes.

  “So, you’re going for sure? You’ve already made the decision?” My heart shatters, cracks and then splits into two.

  “I don’t know. It’s a huge opportunity that will probably never come again. But this”—he motions between us—“I know is the real thing.”

  I stand, and his hands drop to his lap. “You don’t know that. We’ve haven’t been together that long.”

  He stands, too, and wraps his arms around me, his stubble pricking my cheeks. I lean in to his security. “Time isn’t an indicator of love.”

  I rest my hands on his chest. It feels so safe in his arms, but the urge not to repeat past mistakes shouts its mantra in my head.

  Protect yourself. Look out for yourself. You can do it on your own.

  “Reed, I just got here and besides, I have my mom, Jade, and my schooling to consider. I gave up everything I was working toward for a man before and look where I ended up.”

  He steps back, and my hands fall between us.

  “I’m not Pete.” His eyes fill with an anger I’ve never seen from him before.

  “I know, but you’ve got to see where I’m coming from.”

  He steps forward again, taking my hands in his. “I know you’re scared. I know you’ve been hurt, but I’m not him. I’ll take care of you and Jade and your mom can come with us.”

  I shake my head. “She won’t want to leave everybody and everything here. She’s spent a lifetime here. Otherwise, she would have just moved to L.A. in the first place.”

  “Okay. Let’s just leave it on the table. They don’t need an answer until Wednesday. Just think about it.” Hope shines brightly in his eyes now and I have to glance away.

  I don’t want to tell him, but no matter what, nothing will change. It’s either a long-distance relationship—which the thought of makes me want to throw up because I’ll never see him—or nothing. And a long-distance relationship would be even more difficult given the fact that my daughter is already having one of those with her father.

  He wraps me in his arms and I close my eyes wondering how much longer I’ll have him here with me.

  “Let’s get this carnival over with and we can discuss it more tonight when you’re at my house.”

  I nod. I know it wasn’t Reed’s intention to put a dark cloud over today, but his news as wonderful as it is for him, makes me want to put on my pajamas, play sappy eighties love songs and cry over a tub of ice cream.

  Because sooner or later, he’ll have to make a decision. And if he makes the right one, it means leaving me behind.

  * * *

  “You have every divorcee buying the tickets, so they can imagine it’s their ex’s car?” Pete comes up with Jade on his shoulders.

  “Maybe you have aggression you’d like to get out,” I say, taking the tickets from a mom and handing her some protective eyewear. I set the clock for five minutes once she picks up her object of choice.

  “Not on a car.” He glances at Reed, who’s talking to Helen.

  “Give it a rest.”

  “I heard a little rumor.” Pete lowers Jade off his shoulders and she runs over to Henry.

  I follow her progress and Reed signals if it’s okay for Helen to take Jade and Henry inside the school. I nod.

  �
��Don’t.” I hold my hand up, but Pete doesn’t listen, as per usual.

  “Your boy is going to New York, huh?”

  I shake my head, ignoring him, eyeing the clock and watching the woman go to town on the hood of the car with a hammer.

  “You going to follow? Because you’ll need my permission to take Jade even farther away from me.” He crosses his arms with a smug look on his face.

  “It’s none of your business.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Vic, Jade is my business. Where you go, Jade goes.”

  He’s right. We both know it. I would need his permission to move Jade to New York. Tears well up in my eyes as the emotions I’ve been suppressing all afternoon rise to the surface, hitting me like a hurricane-force wind.

  “Oh my God, just let it go right now! I will tell you if anything changes.”

  “Hey.” Reed comes to my side, quickly appraising the situation—me about to break down in tears and Pete’s smug face. “Can’t you just give it a fucking rest?” he says to Pete. “You had your chance. You treated her like shit. She divorced you two years ago.”

  They both take a step closer to one another.

  “You’re going to have her uproot her entire life, so you can say you won?” Pete grinds out.

  “What are you even talking about?” Reed asks, looking at him like he’s an idiot.

  They’re chest to chest and I wiggle my hands in, trying to push on both of their chests to separate them. A crowd is forming around the perimeter of our little group.

  “You’re pissed because you always wanted to compete with me. I got the girl, I got the family, and I make a shit-ton more money than you.” Pete laughs like Reed’s a joke.

  “What are you talking about?” I ask Pete as I push on his chest.

  “You think I’m playing a game?” Reed asks, cold fury in his voice.

  “I think you threw yourself at her because you want to be able to hold it over me. Guess what? It worked. I want her back.”

  The buzzer goes off and the woman comes over with a huge smile on her face and sweat beading down her forehead, handing me back the eyewear protection.

  “Next,” I call out to keep things going, but Pete’s words ring in my ear. He wants me back?

  No one comes up to take a turn because they’re all enthralled in Reed and Pete’s argument.